3370 - And Finally That's What I'm Here For


Lisbon is full of breathtakingly beautiful sights, the city is beautifully located and there are thousands of things you could see. Well, if you need a single reason to go to Lisbon, I can’t think of a better one than the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos in Belém.

It’s one good example of what happens when huge amounts of money meet an extraordinary vision. I’ve seen a few big and beautiful monasteries throughout the last 30 years, but none of them has impressed me more than this one.

Photographically the first challenge is construction work in the square in front of the building. I solved it by going very near and ultra-wide. I suppose you can imagine the insane keystone correction and the tight crop needed to straighten things up again. The resulting images from outside are therefore small, but they give at least a hint of the scale of this monastery complex.

The church itself is to the right side of the entrance, the original cloister is behind the church. What you see in the background, the whole left side, is an annex constructed in the 19th century, housing two museums.